by Zoe Chant
He pulled back a couple of inches while she caught her breath and wondered if that counted as a scream.
Then she felt his teeth. He bit so softly, just the tiniest pressure, and Ali held her breath. The pressure increased a little, then a little more, and she couldn't help dragging in air, and letting it out in little whimpers.
She didn't know how long he held the bite for, but it felt like he was keeping her on the very edge of orgasm with his teeth, holding her trembling on some ledge as she waited to fall.
Then he let go, and sucked hard.
Ali screamed out loud as orgasm ripped through her. She could barely hear herself through the blood rushing in her ears, the pounding of her heart drowning out any sounds, and the spasms in her pussy overwhelming her entire body.
When she came down, Grey was up beside her again and holding her in his arms.
"Well?" His voice was deep and filled with suppressed tension.
"A-plus," Ali managed weakly.
It was a lame joke, but she didn't think she could even try to put into words how he'd made her feel. The power of that orgasm, the sensation of being held entirely in his hands, between his teeth, and how she'd been completely willing to let him take control and utterly blow her mind had been amazing.
She'd never felt anything like this for anybody.
He kissed her and said, "Are you up for another round?"
She smiled a little. "What if I said no?"
"Then I would be very disappointed."
She smiled more. "I'm not saying no."
He kissed her again. "Good."
"But this time, I want you inside me."
"I want that, too," he murmured, "more than I can say." His fingers slipped in between her folds again, stroking her sensitive opening. Ali shivered.
This time, though, she could tell that he was teetering on the edge of losing control, too. His breathing had sped up, and when she cupped his face in one hand to bring him in for another kiss, she could feel his pulse racing where her fingers touched his neck.
He was being incredibly gentle with her, but it was taking a massive amount of restraint. Ali wanted to see what happened when that restraint disappeared.
"Come on," she whispered in his ear. "Don't you want to be inside me? I can't wait to feel you. I'm so wet for you, can you feel it on your fingers? You're going to slide right in and fill me all the way up..."
He groaned. "You should come with a warning. You could kill a man, talking like that."
"After what you just did to me, I don't think I'm the one who should come with a warning," Ali murmured. "Are you going to do it again?"
He swore, and pulled back in a sudden, graceful move to brace himself over her again. She met his eyes. They were smoldering.
"All I can taste is you," he told her, holding her eyes. "All I can smell. All I can see. I want to be as close to you as possible."
"So do it," she whispered.
He did.
With that lithe grace that characterized every move he made, he slid between her legs and caught her left one as she lifted it, pressing his cock into her body with one fluid motion of his hips.
Ali’s head went back and her mouth fell open at the feel of him opening her up. He was big, big enough to make her sweat as he pushed into her. Big enough to press against her G-spot hard enough to set off stars behind her eyes.
He leaned down and kissed her when he was fully seated inside. Ali wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, lifting her hips to his first thrust, and opening herself fully to his tongue as well as his cock.
Every thrust seemed to send a wave of pleasure crashing through her body. Grey kissed her mouth, her cheeks, her neck, and her breasts as he moved, seemingly unable to keep from tasting her all over even when he was deep inside of her.
Ali tilted her hips up. He caught them in both his big hands and thrust hard, and she wailed at the difference in angle and the pleasure clenching her body tight.
"Please," she gasped as he thrust again and again, winding her tighter and tighter and tighter. "Please, please, please!"
Grey listened. He let go of her hip with one hand and reached between them, rubbing the pads of his fingers in circles over her clit as he thrust. Once—twice—three times—
Ali shrieked aloud as she came a second time, her pussy clenching down hard on Grey's cock. Nothing had ever felt as good as he felt inside her. She wanted to stay like this forever.
His long, low groan reverberated through their bodies as her pussy spasmed around him.
"So hot," he whispered, "So hot, you're so beautiful, the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen, Alethia."
He pressed his face into her neck as he came. Ali wrapped her arms around him and pretended that tears hadn't sprung into her eyes.
They stayed wrapped in each other's arms for a long time. Ali had no idea how much time they'd spent clutching each other when Grey finally lifted his head to look at her.
“You’re amazing.” He brushed a tendril of hair out of her eyes.
Ali smiled, feeling happiness suffusing her body. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so content. “So are you.”
***
It wasn’t long before Alethia drifted off to sleep, and Grey was left to watch her soft breathing and think.
He’d been suspecting something since the moment their eyes met, if he was honest with himself. There’d been a spark there, a connection that couldn’t be denied, and it had only grown stronger and stronger as the night went on. His desire to have her shift and run alongside him had only been a symptom of the real truth.
When he’d slid inside her, he’d known.
Alethia was his mate.
Maybe he should’ve told her right then, but he’d been a bit distracted. And she’d been so sleepy right after. He wanted to make sure she understood what this meant, to talk to her about the future.
The future they were going to share.
Grey let out a silent laugh, shaking his head in disbelief. He never would have imagined that he’d find his mate in a bar in Ryder’s Lodge.
He’d never imagined that his mate would be someone like Alethia.
When he’d thought about it, he’d always pictured a tomboy, a woman who wore hiking boots and a baseball cap instead of heels and makeup. He’d always figured that a woman who liked clothes and nail polish and… all that stuff…wouldn’t be happy with him.
But now that he’d met Alethia, he knew different. She’d been so happy that he was willing to listen to her talk about the things she liked. It was such a simple thing. Sure, he couldn’t hold up his end of a conversation about lipstick or whatever, but he wouldn’t say no to learning a bit about things that had always been a total mystery to him.
Besides, anything that made her look that insanely beautiful had to be worth talking about.
She’d probably be happy if he bought her some… things.
Grey’s instincts liked that. A present for his mate. The snow leopard inside him was eager to kill something and drag it back for her to admire.
Fine, he’d stalk the wild feminine accessories and get her a surprise.
He frowned, thinking. Clothes needed to be tried on, and he had a vague understanding that women were very particular about that point. Makeup… He’d be completely hopeless. He’d walked past makeup aisles in stores and glanced down them, totally bewildered at how many options there were, wondering how the hell women knew what to get. He’d have a ninety-nine percent chance of getting the wrong thing.
Maybe a bath… thing? One of those things you put in the bath and it smelled good. Or a perfume. Surely it’d be hard to go wrong with that. His sense of smell was excellent.
And this was only the beginning. As time went on, if he did listen to her, he’d learn what she liked.
Grey thought about years in the future, being able to bring home her absolute favorite perfume. Or some piece of jewelry that she’d eyed in the store but turned away from
because it was too expensive.
Years in the future.
This was his mate, sleeping next to him. He was distracting himself with little things because this seemed too enormous to be real, that he could have stumbled across his mate so accidentally, now, tonight.
If he’d refused John’s invitation, he’d never have met Alethia. Had it been some kind of fate that led him to accept? He’d never know, but he was more grateful than he could say.
Years. They were going to have years.
Grey watched Alethia breathing softly in sleep, and smiled.
***
Ali woke up to her phone buzzing.
Normally, she was groggy and disoriented when she woke up, and if she was somewhere unfamiliar, it took her a while to sort herself out and remember what she was doing there. But not this morning.
She smiled at Grey’s long body. He was blinking awake as she leaned over to grab her purse from where she’d dropped it by the bed last night.
She looked at the phone. It was Molly. “Hello?”
“Where are you, Ali? You said you’d help me get ready for the club this morning!”
Molly had a book club, but it did more eating and drinking than reading. Ali didn’t have any interest in joining, but she was drafted to help clean and make snacks for it whenever it was at their place.
Yesterday, Ali vaguely remembered, Molly had said, I’m hosting book club this week. Ali had said, Mmm.
Ali would much rather stay in bed with Grey than go help Molly frantically try and clean the whole house while simultaneously surfing Pinterest on her phone for the perfect hors d’oeuvre recipe.
She could hear it now: This says violets are edible! I could garnish it with violets! Do we have violets growing anywhere around here? Wait, where are you going, the counters need to be scrubbed!
But if she didn't help, Molly might just spontaneously combust.
“I’ll come home and help,” Ali sighed. “Give me a little while to get there.”
“Where are you? At some guy’s place? Tell him to get his butt out of bed and drive you home!” Molly shouted, clearly hoping to be heard by some guy on the other end of the line.
“See you soon!” Ali hung up.
She turned to Grey. “My sister-in-law wants you to get your butt out of bed and drive me home.”
“I heard.” He stretched. “I’d rather stay here with you.”
Ali couldn’t help the smile spreading over her face. “Me too. But I really need to go home and help her out with this, or she’ll explode from anxiety, probably. And I have work later. Maybe we could see each other again?”
Every day for the next week? Or longer? But that wasn’t something you could say after one date, no matter how amazing the date had been.
“Tonight?” He was smiling back at her. It was a warm smile, with just a hint of smolder in it. She was struck again by how much it changed his face when he really smiled.
“Tonight sounds wonderful. I work until seven, but after that…”
“Great.” He stretched. “I can drive you home like your sister-in-law wants. Even though looking at you in my bed like this makes me want to keep you here all day.”
Ali groaned. “Don’t say that.”
“Why not?” His smile grew.
“It’s too tempting.”
“Let me make you breakfast, at least.”
That, she wasn’t going to say no to. “Okay.”
He leaned over and kissed her softly on the mouth, and then got up.
Her eyes followed his long, graceful body, up and up and up. She hadn’t had a chance to just look him up and down last night, since they’d been so busy with…other things. He was lithe and muscular, with powerful shoulders and a lean stomach, with a trail of blond hair leading down to his groin. His cock was big, half-hard with morning wood.
Ali couldn’t help herself. “Wait.”
Grey stopped, raising his eyebrows inquiringly.
“Come back here.”
He came back, and Ali pulled him in by the hips, pushing him to sit down on the bed again.
“What’s this about?”
His voice trailed off as she bent down to take his hardening cock into her mouth.
Ali loved going down on a man. When you had a man’s cock in your mouth, you were in charge of everything he felt. And she was going to make Grey feel really, really good.
She teased him a bit at first, flickering her tongue around the head, pressing kisses down the rock-hard shaft. She could see his hands flexing on the bed.
When she finished with teasing and sucked hard, he made a low, sharp noise. “Alethia.”
She let up and started the classic up-and-down movement, feeling him move over her tongue and just to the back of her throat, and then pulling back until the head was just barely in her mouth, and then down again.
She wrapped her hand around the base once he was slick enough, and jerked him off in time to the movements of her mouth. He was groaning above her, a deep, lustful sound. Her mouth was full of the salty taste of his pre-come, and it was making her pussy clench with desire.
His thigh muscles were starting to tense, and his breath was speeding up. So the next time she went down, she relaxed her throat, and swallowed him until her lips touched her hand.
He stopped breathing for a second before he came, like there was a moment frozen in time, like she was holding him entirely still with her mouth.
And then he was coming, his hand landing on her head to hold her to him, his cock pulsing in her mouth.
She lifted her head. “How was that?” Her voice was almost as husky as his, now.
“Alethia.” He shook his head. His pupils were blown wide open, like black pools.
Ali felt smug. Right up until he caught his breath and grabbed her around her waist, tossing her back onto the pillows.
She shrieked delightedly, and shrieked again when he buried his face between her legs without any warning.
His warm, wet tongue delved right to her core. Ali’s eyes fell closed and her head tipped back, her hips rising to meet his mouth. Oh God, his mouth was so good.
He licked her hard and fast, finding her pleasure and chasing it down, until she was quivering underneath him and gasping for her breath. She moaned and shuddered as he brought her closer and closer, until her breath went out of her in a rush and she came hard, pulsing wetly against his tongue.
But he didn’t stop. He kept licking, softly at first, but when she moaned at a bolt of pleasure, he sucked at that spot. Soon she was frantically pushing her hips up again; he gripped them with his hands and held her still as he brought her off for the second time in a row.
Ali panted as she came down, her clit twitching every few moments with remembered sensation. “You are so good at that,” she sighed.
“I could say the same to you.” He stretched out next to her. “Are you sure you can’t stay here in bed all day?”
Ali shook her head. “I wish.”
Not that she wanted to leave Molly in the lurch, she just…would rather be here. Would so much rather be here.
He sighed and pushed himself up. “Well, I’ll give breakfast another shot. Although if you call me back again, I won’t be disappointed.”
He turned to walk away, and Ali replied, “Then I’d lose this view!”
He glanced over his shoulder and grinned, a twinkle in his silver eyes.
She loved that grin of his. It made him look like a teenager. And the rear view was very nice.
***
Ali took as quick a shower as she could, which was pretty fast; it was easier to rush a shower when all she had were man products. She stepped out of the bathroom to the smell of bacon.
“Almost done,” Grey said over his shoulder. She went to climb the stairs to the loft.
When she was at the top, a sudden suspicion made her glance over her shoulder, and sure enough, he was admiring her rear view with as much naked—ha!—appreciation as she’d had for him.
Ali threw last night’s clothes back on and came downstairs to a big spread of pancakes, eggs, and bacon.
“Wow,” she said, surveying the food. “I didn’t know you were running a diner in here.”
“I like to eat,” he said, unapologetically. “And I like women who like to eat. Don’t tell me you were planning on having celery for breakfast or something.”
Ali shook her head emphatically. “This looks like exactly what I want for breakfast.”
“Good, then dig in.”
Ali did. It was delicious. The pancakes were light and fluffy, the eggs buttery and soft, and the bacon had the perfect amount of crisp. "This is amazing."
Grey shrugged. "I like to cook. All alone out here, the delivery options are pretty slim, so it was either learn how to cook or eat bad food. I'm too fond of food to stand for the second option."
"Me too." Ali crunched down a slice of bacon. It was delicious. "I'm an okay cook, but I never make breakfast like this."
"I love cooking breakfast. Sometimes all I eat all day is breakfast. Omelets, waffles, sausage patties... You've only scratched the surface of breakfast, as far as I'm concerned."
Ali smiled. "I'll have to come back and test the full range of possibilities."
His eyes were warm. "I hope you do."
Ali ate until she was stuffed, and then reluctantly found her purse. Her phone had a text from Molly, where r u???, which kept her from pulling Grey into the bed for round two of the morning. She said, "I really do need to get going."
"Of course." Grey finished putting the dishes in the sink and turned, drying his hands. "But first, I wanted to say something."
Curious, Ali came over to him. "What is it?"
He took her hand. "I know you grew up around shifters, so I guess I won't have to explain the whole thing. I can just say it."
"Say what?" He looked nervous. What could be making him nervous?